Saint Death: The secretive and sinister 'cult' challenging the power of the Catholic Church

A girl carries a figurine of La Santa Muerte (The Saint of Death), a cult figure often depicted as a skeletal grim reaper, as a man pours tequila over it in the Tepito neighborhood in Mexico City on January 1, 2011. Followers will gather at the saint's altar to leave offerings of apples, flowers, cigarettes, colored candles, and tequila to thank her for granted favors or to ask for new ones in the coming year. REUTERS/Claudia Daut

During one of Pope Francis' speeches on his landmark trip to Mexico earlier this year, he issued a cryptic admonishment. In an address to Mexican bishops, the pontiff said that he was "particularly concerned about those many persons who, seduced by the empty power of the world, praise illusions and embrace their macabre symbols to commemorate death in exchange for money."

For those outside of Latin America, the pope's reference to a secretive "cult" that venerates Santa Muerte, or "Saint Death," is likely to escape notice. But to the 10 million to 12 million adherents in the region, the pope's criticism of Santa Muerte, which has challenged the influence of the Catholic Church, was clear.

Santa Muerte, and the people who worship her, are much maligned, often associated with the region's narco underworld. But the reality, like faith, is more complex.

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Santa Muerte likely originates from Europe, arriving in the New World with Spanish conquistadors.

A woman carries a figure of La Santa Muerte, or "Death Saint," as she arrives to attend a mass in the name of the folk saint during Day of the Dead celebrations in the town of San Pedro Escobedo, Mexico, on November 1, 2008. La Santa Muerte, which some believe to be rooted in pre-Colombian beliefs, is one of several unofficial folk saints worshipped in Mexico.
AP Photo//Marco Ugarte

Many elements of Catholicism were incorporated into Santa Muerte worship by indigenous people and later others in Mexico, with "previously unholy images of the Grim Reaper supercharged by traditional Catholic practices of devotional prayers and votive candles."

Followers of Santa Muerte, or "Saint Death," an unofficial cult that worships a scythe-wielding skeletal figure not recognized by the Catholic Church, protest in front of Mexico City's cathedral, on April 5, 2009, after authorities destroyed a shrine to the saint in the violent border town of Nuevo Laredo. Church officials and police say that Santa Muerte is revered by drug traffickers and criminals who pray to the image for miracles. More than 6,300 people were killed in Mexico in 2008 as violent drug cartels fought each other and the government.
REUTERS/Daniel Aguilar

By the 18th century, Catholic leadership realized that the reaper figure had become a venerated figure among indigenous people. The church elected to destroy Santa Muerte shrines, and the sect faded from public view until the mid-20th century.

A follower carries a figurine of La Santa Muerte as he arrives for rosary prayers during Day of the Dead celebrations at a market in the Tepito district of Mexico City on November 1, 2013. On the Day of the Dead, Santa Muerte followers offer her lit cigarettes, glasses of tequila, apples, and flowers to express their gratitude for miracles accredited to the saint and ask favors, according to the celebrations' organizers.
REUTERS/Henry Romero

By the 1980s, members of drug cartels and other criminal groups in Mexico had embraced Santa Muerte.

A seized statue of the folk saint Santa Muerte sits on packages of marijuana by a gun as suspects are presented to the press in Tijuana, Mexico, on March 31, 2010. According to the army, seven suspects were arrested during a joint operation in which they seized 847 kilograms (1,867 pounds) of marijuana, guns, cars, and machines to falsify official credentials.
AP Photo/Guillermo Arias

Santa Muerte had a revival in 2001, when, according to AFP's Laurent Thomet, a woman called Dona Queta "brought her skeleton out in the street in Mexico City's rough neighborhood of Tepito." People soon flocked to the shrine.

Giovanni, 26, hugs his 8-year-old niece, Leslie, who's dressed in a Halloween costume after the Santa Muerte monthly mass in the Tepito neighborhood in Mexico City on November 1, 2010.
AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills

"The heart of her faith is in Tepito," writes journalist Ioan Grillo, "a crowded quarter [of the city] that dates back to before the Spanish conquest ... There is also a never-ending collection of Santa Muerte memorabilia in stalls and entire shops devoted to her."

A girl carries a figurine of La Santa Muerte, a cult figure often depicted as a skeletal grim reaper, as a man pours tequila over it in the Tepito neighborhood in Mexico City on January 1, 2011. Followers will gather at the saint's altar to leave offerings of apples, flowers, cigarettes, colored candles, and tequila to thank her for granted favors or to ask for new ones in the coming year.
REUTERS/Claudia Daut

"Ecatepec is the birthplace of Santa Muerte," says Brother Parka, a 58-year-old Santa Muerte spiritual guide, referring to a heavily populated municipality north of Mexico City. "We had to build the National Congregation of the Santa Muerte because the cult has grown so much, it is immense."

[Brother Parka] insists that Ecatepec is the place with the most devotees in Mexico for two reasons. The first is obvious: Ecatepec is the most populated (and perhaps the most overpopulated) municipality in Latin America, with more than 1.5 million inhabitants. And second, "because here the people have faith and are in need of believing in something," Brother Parka says.

Especially since the municipality accumulated a total of 354 homicides in 2015 alone, according to Mexico's National System of Public Security.

In addition, Brother Parka points out that Ecatepec is the nerve center of a "Santa Muerte corridor," which runs from the Line 2 of the Metro in this Mexico State municipality through several colonies in Mexico City where the cult is also deeply rooted, like Morelos, Peralvillo, Santa Julia, and the neighborhood of Tepito, which is also a bastion of the Muerte.

The macabre imagery and underground practices of Santa Muerte, also called "the boney one" or "the white lady," have led many to associate the sect with the criminal underworld.

A Santa Muerte pendant next to guns and ammunition magazines seized by the Mexican army during a presentation of suspected gunmen and kidnappers to the press in Tijuana, Mexico, on December 2, 2008.
AP Photo/Guillermo Arias

And drug traffickers have certainly taken to the faith.

A police officer takes a photograph with her mobile phone during the presentation of suspects Jose Javier Vazquez and Laura Daena Vazquez along with a confiscated statue of La Santa Muerte, cash amounting to $14,200, and weapons at the state police office in Guadalajara, on September 11, 2012.
REUTERS/Alejandro Acosta

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Shrines to Santa Muerte are often found in the homes and hideouts of Mexican drug traffickers.

In this March 18, 2009, photo, a cameraman in military garb records images representing the folk saint known in Mexico as Santa Muerte in a seized house in the border town of Miguel Aleman, Mexico. At the time, in an effort against organized crime, Mexican authorities began destroying altars to Santa Muerte, worshipped by drug dealers who pray for protection in their dangerous line of work.
AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini

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Drug traffickers and other criminals have incorporated Santa Muerte imagery into their lifestyle and theatrics.

An inmate with a tattoo of Santa Muerte during a media tour in the Topo Chico prison in Monterrey, Mexico, on February 17, 2016. The director of the prison in northeast Mexico, where 49 people died in a riot on February 11, 2016, was accused of murder and detained, along with two others, a state prosecutor said.
REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

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Criminals have also invoked Santa Muerte practices in more grisly public displays.

Police stand guard near the body parts of an unidentified person that were left on a street in Acatlipa neighborhood in Morelos, Mexico, on December 29, 2011. The body parts were arranged to form the shape of an altar with a candle of La Santa Muerte, local media reported.
REUTERS/Margarito Perez Retana

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The Zetas cartel built numerous shrines to Santa Muerte in their territory in northeast Mexico, according to Grillo. Two shrines were also prominently located outside the hometown of Knights Templar drug lord Servando "La Tuta" Gomez.

A man holds a skeletal figure representing the folk saint known in Mexico as Santa Muerte during a ceremony in Mexico City, on April 1, 2009. At first glance, the so-called Santa Muerte may seem like nothing more than a folk figure, but Mexican authorities say that the unofficial religion that has grown up around the statue is usually a sign of something more sinister: crime, drugs, and even brutal killings.
AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo

According to Chesnut, the disorder and bloodshed brought on by the war on drugs initiated in Mexico a decade ago "clearly helped accelerate the devotion to Santa Muerte."

An image of La Santa Muerte lies in a pool of blood at a crime scene in Acapulco on February 18, 2011. Heavily armed groups shot at least a dozen people, six taxi drivers among them, burned about 18 vehicles, a house, and a business and carried out shootouts in different parts of the Pacific resort city, according to local media.
REUTERS/Stringer

But, according to Chesnut, Santa Muerte is not only embraced for nefarious reasons, and criminals are not the only ones who venerate her.

People sit with depictions of La Santa Muerte during a rally in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on June 19, 2011. More than 70 believers of Santa Muerte took part in the rally to demand increased security and a stop to violence in the city.
REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

The close association of Santa Muerte with criminal activity has even been repudiated by a US appeals court.

Rafael Goxcon-Chagal and Maria Vianey Medina-Copete were convicted in August 2012 for trafficking methamphetamine. Authorities say a Santa Muerte prayer card was found with the couple during a traffic stop that led to their 2011 arrests.

The 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on July 2, 2014, that a Santa Muerte expert tainted the convictions by testifying that the folk saint was "a very good indicator of possible criminal activity," according to The Associated Press.

To the appeals court, the expert's testimony was close to "psychobabble and substantially influenced the outcome" of the case.

"Santa Muerte has been used as evidence and used as probable cause in some cases," Chesnut told the AP. "But she is not just a narco saint, and many of her devotees aren't involved in criminal behavior."

"While narcos pray to Santa Muerte for help in annihilating their enemies or making sure their cocaine shipments safely get to places like Chicago, most people plead for help in love, money, health and other non-criminal things," writes Thomet.

A woman puts gold adornments on a skeletal figure representing the folk saint known in Mexico as Santa Muerte during a ceremony in Mexico City on August 12, 2007.
AP Photo/Gregory Bull

"The white lady is a one-stop devotional shop ... for narco-traffickers seeking harm on enemies or protection for themselves, businesses seeking a prosperous opening, mothers worried about a child's health or a daughter's job prospects, even for young women, worrying about a roving husband or boyfriend."

Followers of La Santa Muerte attend a praying of the rosary during the main celebration at a market in Tepito in Mexico City on November 1, 2012. According to the organizer of the celebration, the cult to Saint Death in Mexico has thousands of followers who make offerings to express gratitude for miracles and favors accredited to the saint.
REUTERS/Henry Romero

Santa Muerte imagery may also speak to Mexicans' enduring resistance to colonialism, with the skeleton figure hearkening to Aztec-era gods, writes Grillo.

This February 12, 2013, file photo shows a statue of La Santa Muerte, an underworld saint most recently associated with the violent drug trade in Mexico, at an altar in an apartment in New York City.
AP Photo/Russell Contreras, File

The Catholic Church has pushed back against Santa Muerte aggressively, through the pope's admonishments to bishops during his visit to Mexico and through priests urging "the faithful not to mess with the dark and diabolical," according to Grillo.

Children play next to a statue of the folk saint known as Santa Muerte, or Death Saint, in the Norte neighborhood of Mexico City on May 4, 2009.
AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd

But Santa Muerte remains widely revered. While Mexico is home to most of those who worship her, adherents are also found in Central America and the US.

A musician plays his violin next to a depiction of La Santa Muerte at a shrine during Day of the Dead celebrations in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on November 2, 2015. The saint is often depicted as a skeletal "grim reaper" and followers leave offerings of tequila, rum, beer, cigarettes, cash, flowers, and candy at altars adorned with rosaries and candles. The Catholic Church frowns on the Saint Death cult, whose origins may trace back to Aztec and Mayan death gods or to ancient European traditions, but many devotees call themselves Catholic.
REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

For many in Mexico, their Catholic faith and devotion to Santa Muerte can coexist.

The Rev. Arturo Garcia and Rafael Cruz decorate the virgin of Santa Muerte, the Grim Reaper, in Mexico City on February 16, 2005.
AP Photo/Marco Ugarte

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"Many people here have a devotion to her and still consider themselves good Catholics," Chesnut told The National Catholic Register, "and that is a real challenge for the church."

Worshipers carry an image of the folk saint known in Mexico as "Santa Muerte" during a procession at Holy Week in Mexico City, on April 6, 2012. Holy Week commemorates the last week of the life of Jesus, culminating in his crucifixion on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.
AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini